Kathmandu, May 2 -- This year's International Labour Day was a quiet affair. There were no rallies, no sloganeerings and no formal events to mark the day, as the entire country has remained under a lockdown since March 24.

The day was particularly sombre as hundreds of thousands of Nepali workers both within the country and abroad had been without jobs for more than a month and many salaried workers left without pay or furloughed by their employers due to the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Nepal's labour force has been hit hard by the crisis, which has halted all economic activities and shut down businesses, according to labour rights activists.

Amid fear and uncertainty of job losses and pay cuts, various labour rights gr...